by TikTok seems to be working on integration with Lemon 8another social app owned by Beijing-based TikTok parent company ByteDance, according to new findings from the product intelligence firm. springy. The apparent new partnership sees TikTok develop a feature that allows users to sync their Lemon8 posts to TikTok, then add sounds and music to the posts using the TikTok editor.
Watchful was unable to provide screenshots of the feature in question, but notes that its methodology uses a combination of computer vision, machine learning algorithms, and publicly available data stream analysis to identify and match changes to the app. This allows Watchful to discover features before they are released publicly, as it has done many times before. Recently, it revealed TikTok features in development such as AI chatbot Tako, a custom store feed, video stickers, and more.
TikTok did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Lemon8, as you may remember, rose rapidly up the App Store charts earlier this year around the same time that US lawmakers discussion Go ahead ban TikTok or force sell. The app, a lifestyle social network, originally launched in the arch of 2020, but it was artificially inflated on TikTok this spring.
With suspicious timing, the app “goes viral” on the TikTok video platform after several influencers posted positive videos promoting Lemon8 using similar language describing it as a mix of Pinterest and Instagram. None of the videos we came across at the time indicated that they were sponsored content or ads. This popularity, in turn, propelled Lemon8 into the top 10 overall apps in the US App Store for several days in March 2023.
Before that , from the inside It reported that ByteDance was paying creators to post about Lemon8 on TikTok to seed its initial US user base and content.
From the looks of things, it appears that ByteDance was hoping Lemon8 would serve as a backup plan to gain the engagement and attention of US users in the event of a complete TikTok ban.
If the newly spotted cross-posting feature does, in fact, go public, ByteDance will be able to leverage TikTok once again to drive more interest for Lemon8, leading to new installs and adoptions. However, it is not clear at this time if or when cross-pollination will be launched, or if it is only under consideration at the moment.
Currently, Lemon8 has an estimated 25 million downloads worldwide, each company has market information data. Its top 5 markets are Thailand (36% of installs), Japan (24%), Indonesia (21%), Malaysia (7.2%) and the US (7%).
